# How do you make a lake? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 16, 2005, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833 "2005-07-16T21:39:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/43 "2017-03-25T16:27:18Z")
And of course, North is southeast of Due West in South Carolina. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFAIEK74pU) ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/44 "2017-03-25T17:08:49Z")
Zombie alert, but allows me to share the story of my former boss’s pond. He has an acreage, and had a pond built, lined with clay. Couldn’t keep water in it, so obviously there was a break in the clay somewhere. Multiple attempts to fix it all failed for reasons I don’t know. Finally, because he had to have a pond, he finally had a pool liner installed. I wasn’t sure I believed that story (heard from a mutual friend), but I was invited out to his wedding reception, and you could see some of the blue plastic on the shore where the sand had washed away. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/45 "2017-03-25T18:29:56Z")
Why has this poor zombie thread been resurrected??? I have a cousin who built a lake pretty much by digging a hole, lining it with impermeable materials, covering that with sand, and filling it with water pumped from a nearby creek. It’s got fish, reeds, some lake weed, etc. Keeping the ecosystem balanced is part of the fun for him. So is fishing the lake for bass. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2017, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/46 "2017-03-25T18:33:35Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > \*\*Why has this poor zombie thread been resurrected??? \*\* > > I have a cousin who built a lake pretty much by digging a hole, lining it with impermeable materials, covering that with sand, and filling it with water pumped from a nearby creek. It’s got fish, reeds, some lake weed, etc. Keeping the ecosystem balanced is part of the fun for him. So is fishing the lake for bass. 😃 Spammer. Some company that builds lakes. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/47 "2017-03-26T01:36:08Z")
But you must seriously consider the safety and health implications of any pond or lake you make. Around here, the experts say our lake is not a lake, it is an immature coastal lagoon. By that they mean that its a drowned valley that is yet to fill up with sediments - or have the ocean eat the coastal sand/rocky outcrop area away and return it to being a bay in the ocean. My point is that a lake is a temporary lake unless the outflow of water is less or equal to the inflow, and the outflow of sediments is more or equal to the inflow. Lake sanston was already a dry lake bed, so presumably the change to put water into it was not much of an interference to nature’s ways. The lake may well have filled up if they irrigated the land nearby, as the aquifer will fill. the water height in the sediments will rise… There are lakes in NSW that are drying up as there is coal mining under them, and the coal mine does not pump the ground water straight back up to the lake… ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/48 "2017-03-26T17:44:33Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > The easiest way to make a lake is to be trying to do something else and go "[oops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea)!’ Took no planning at all. That’s why you want to make a lake by basically expanding part of a river or stream instead of just digging a hole and putting water into it. The Salton Sea has been getting more and more disgusting as time goes on. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/49 "2017-03-26T17:53:39Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > I think it’s about impossible not to have an ecosystem naturally form. Plants and insects will be brought in by the stream that feeds it, and will also spread from nearby water systems (via birds, wind, etc). Yeah this was always my thought when the Mythbusters used to do underwater bomb experiments in that huge “mining pit” lake; specifically because it didn’t have fish or wildlife in it. The lake clearly had plants growing in its shallower sections, and they never said anything about the water being contaminated (they swam and dived in it all the time, as well as…“redistributing” it over a large area). So I always wondered what kept it free of wildlife and fish. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/50 "2017-03-26T20:12:38Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Spammer. Some company that builds lakes. Seriously. If you build a lake, they will come. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/51 "2017-03-26T20:17:15Z")
> [@TimeWinder](#): > > Yeah this was always my thought when the Mythbusters used to do underwater bomb experiments in that huge “mining pit” lake; specifically because it didn’t have fish or wildlife in it. The lake clearly had plants growing in its shallower sections, and they never said anything about the water being contaminated (they swam and dived in it all the time, as well as…“redistributing” it over a large area). So I always wondered what kept it free of wildlife and fish. They did say once it was somewhat alkaline. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/52 "2017-03-26T21:23:07Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > No, not West, Texas but rather West Texas. Farther west than West. Yeah, the strangely named West is just south of Dallas, IIRC. I drove from Austin to visit some friends in Alpine, which is in west Texas. That was a long drive. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/53 "2017-03-26T21:40:10Z")
> [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > A silly question. At what point do I loose my ability to dam up a stream on my property? I mean nobody would notice a dam on a tiny stream, but if owned both banks of the Mississippi, it would obviously be illegal to dam it up. > > Is there an obvious breakpoint on that? In general you do not own navigable waters which are treated as a public highway. Anything below the normal low water mark is federally managed, between the low water mark and the normal high water mark is managed by the state and above the normal high water mark is owned by the land owner. For Non-navigable streams the land owner can do whatever they want with it except deprive those downstream of their water rights. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/54 "2017-03-26T21:44:37Z")
12 years late, but in my area, all you have to do is dig down far enough to reach the water table, and you’ve got a lake. Or pond. Or mudhole. Or mosquito breeder. Since the water table is only a few feet down in many places, it doesn’t take much excavation. But the minute you have standing or flowing water, whether it’s a wet spot in your driveway or big enough to float a battleship, you will have to contend with the state’s Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR), and suddenly your wet spot isn’t yours to use, control or fill in _at all._ It becomes public land held in trust by the state as a “navigable waterway”. So make sure your puddle can’t float a kayak one day a year (seriously, that’s the definition of public waterways) or your ass is all wet. [page 17:](http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/G3622.pdf) > [@](#): > > Courts have held that streams are “navigable in fact” if it is possible to float a canoe or small recreation craft at sometime during the year. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/55 "2017-03-27T10:29:13Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > 12 years late, but in my area, all you have to do is dig down far enough to reach the water table, and you’ve got a lake. Or pond. Or mudhole. Or mosquito breeder.[URL=“[http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/G3622.pdf](http://learningstore.uwex.edu/Assets/pdfs/G3622.pdf)”] Yeah, pretty much the same here. People don’t tend to build lakes (well, except for nearby Hartwell) but lots of people build “cow ponds”, which are ponds. For cows. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/56 "2017-03-27T11:58:01Z")
Not really large enough to call a “lake” but [dew ponds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew_pond) used to be common in England. Built even on top of hills at times and filled by rainwater. The key is the lining of the pond holding the water in. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/57 "2017-03-27T20:07:30Z")
How do you make a lake? I’ll be dammed… ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/58 "2017-03-27T20:37:51Z")
I’ve been reading about passover and I thought this was going to be about how to make a latke. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833/59 "2017-03-27T21:13:15Z")
Something something latke ness matzo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-make-a-lake/312833.md?page=2)